Toonzone had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview with the Lead Writer on Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Christian Cantamessa at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC2014). Topics discussed included:

Bringing Gollum into the story

Exploring an unspoiled Mordor, on the verge of collapse

The possibility of sequels

The narrative experience

The genesis of Talion and precautions taken when creating him

At what point Cantamessa joined Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor takes place between the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Mordor is not yet a wasteland. Talion, a ranger of Gondor is killed while guarding the Black Gate of Mordor against the forces of Sauron. He’s resurrected with wraith-like abilities and heads into Mordor to exact his revenge.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was developed by Monolith Productions and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game is set to be released on September 30, 2014. It will be available on the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. For more information on the game, visit the official Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordorwebsite.

Harley's tale begins as one of seeming insanity. That might only be forgivable due to the fact that she was four years old at the time. That's right... Before she wanted to be an astronaut... Before she wanted to dig up dinosaurs and fossils as a paleontologist... She wanted to be a superhero. Kids are nutty, huh?

Well, she quickly realized that wasn't happening and came to the conclusion that it'd probably be best to just read and watch their exploits. Several years later, she took a look at both at animation and comics as industries and said, "I want to be a part of that"... and she's been on that quest ever since. When not working on a multitude of other things, she enjoys watching any animation she can get her hands on, drawing, coloring, playing video games (Mostly RPGs and fighting games), digging up fossils, or heck, even reading a good comic book.

While Eileen is an advocate of all things wacky and fun, she’s probably one of the more centered people you’ll meet. There’s a time and a place for everything, after all. In addition to having some training in traditional animation, she is also quite familiar with business centric environments. She has a background in executive level administration, network integration sales, project coordination, mediation and management. Eileen is fully capable of holding an entire serious conversation without breaking into giggle fits and marveling at the wonders of string. She simply prefers the giggle fits… and the string.